This week’s Bollywood release, “Special 26,” is about police and pursuit.

Set in the late 1980s, the movie is based on a true incident of a group of conmen who camouflage themselves as law enforcement officials to siphon off the ill-gotten gains of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen.

Manoj Bajpayee and Jimmy Shergill play the real cops in the movie, chasing their counterfeits played by Akshay Kumar and Anupam Kher. It is directed by Neeraj Pandey.

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Here is a round-up of what critics had to say about the movie.

NDTVs Saibal Chatterjeefelt the running time of two and a half hours doesn’t weigh down the movie at all. Rather, he said, the film “glides by with effortlessness” leaving no unsightly footmarks. He found the script “intelligent” and the acting “superb.”

The film, raising the topical issue of corruption, “hinges on four pivotal performances” delivered by Messrs. Kumar, Bajpayee, Kher and Shergill.

Mr. Kumar, in his role as Ajay Vardhan, is a “revelation,” wrote Mr. Chatterjee, adding that the movie is “truly special.”

But be warned before you read his review that you will encounter a few spoilers.

Critic Madhureeta Mukherjee wrote that Anupam Kher “steals the show.”

In her review in The Times of India, Ms. Mukherjee applauded the acting and the cinematography. She added that the score has all the power to “enthuse the pace” of the movie. She gave it three-and-a-half stars out of five.

At the very start of his review on bollywoodhungama.com, Taran Adarsh sends out an alert to his readers to not assume that Special 26 is another “mindless masala entertainer” starring Akshay Kumar.

With “no forced humor” and “no song-and-dance routine and foreign dancers in the background,” the movie impressed Mr. Adarsh, who called it a “slick period thriller.” Every detail, he wrote, is well done, from the vehicles to the ambience and the clothing.

He added that Mr. Kumar has played his part so well that it will win him appreciation not just from his fans but from those who have been “skeptical” about his talent.

Rating it four out of five, Mr. Adarsh wrote the movie is “sure to win accolades, acclaim and awards.”

Unlike other critics, Diksha Madhok, in her review on Reuters, said that the movie doesn’t “hit the bull’s eye.”

She wrote that all the glory of the performances and the narrative was diluted by the romantic elements in the film.

She added that the bits which make the “love story” in the movie are “highly dispensable.”

In her final verdict, Ms. Madhok said Special 26 is “not a bad film” but has ample scope for improvement.

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